Crime-proof homes are our death traps

Today, after you have locked the gate, closed the windows and pulled the curtains, locked all the doors, double-locked all burglar gates, just do me a favour, if you will. Ask yourself this simple question: how safe are you from emergencies from inside your home? And if you were to need assistance, how accessible will you be to help from neighbours or emergency personnel if you were incapacitated for some reason?

Our homes are emergency and fire traps. Each time we raise our walls, add another burglar gate or window we keep thieves, murders, rapists, robbers and intruders out, but we also lock ourselves in.

It is a frightening feeling to walk around your home and look at the walls that we have built around ourselves. What would you do should a fire break out in a room – or any emergency for that matter – that blocks your main entrances? Would you be able to get past these security traps to avert a potential disaster?

In some communities, neighbours are keeping neighbours out as crime, drugs and unemployment pits neighbour against neighbour and community against community.

In efforts to protect ourselves from crime, the burglar windows have become stronger and impenetrable, burglar doors so reinforced that in a case of an emergency, they are death traps.

Sadly, with South Africa’s high crime rate, households view safety and security in terms of keeping perpetrators of crime out, neglecting the safety of those in the house in case of an emergency.

Take a look around your house. Would you be able to escape your bedroom in case of an emergency? Do you have alternative exit points should you not be able to use your main doors in case of an emergency?

Worse still, would you be able to gain access to your house to rescue a loved one in danger without the bundle of keys that has become part and parcel of home life?

If a fire were to break out in one part of your house, do you have a way of escaping? Would you be able to break down those burglar bars and break the window to safety?

Even those who live in security estates behind high walls, electric fences and 24-hour guards live in large prisons of burglar bars and gates.

It is a sobering thought to take inventory of the many ways in which we have turned our homes into traps. If you’re stuck in your bedroom for some reason, there’s no easy escape. The windows have bars so narrow that it is a mission to even wash them.

Sadly, with these features greatly affecting vehicle and household insurance premiums, the safety and security of those inside the house take a back seat. We may be keeping crime out, but we in turn become prisoners in our own homes.